Re: BIRD PHYLOGENY, DNA, MOL. CLOCKS *YAWWN*

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

Darren Naish writes

 BUT (one of
>my favourite party-lines) _Juncitarsus_, a little wader from the Eocene Messel
>fauna, has *proved* that flamingos are derived stilts (recurvirostrids -
avocets
>in this family too, waders of the Charadriiformes)*. Incidentally, recently
>published observations of nesting colonies of Banded stilts (_Cladorhynchus
>leucocephala_) show that they do exactly the same weird thing as breeding
>flamingos (huge colonies on flat islands in remote, hostile lakes), and
thus add
>some behavioral support to this. 

This is to me one of the biggest holes in the S&M classification - I think
the evidence for a flamingo-stilt connection is very strong.  On the whole
my favourite part of it (meaning the part that matches my own gut instincts
best) is the classification of passerines, which I think S&M have greatly
elucidated, particularly by reassigning some clearly misplaced genera and by
recognizing the distinctiveness of Australian songbirds.  But I stll find it
hard to believe that birds of paradise and bowerbirds are not closely
related!  The trouble is, how do we non-molecular types judge this kind of
evidence?  Anyway it's useless for fossils!
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
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